Saturday, October 27, 2007

Students get second chanceCourier-Post – October 21, 2007Now, after operating in the shadows of the traditional educational system since, December, the Community Educational Resource Network school at Bethel United Methodist Church on Westfield Avenue is getting national recognition and some much-needed start-up funds. The National Association for Street Schools, a Denver group that provides financial and logistic support to faith-based schools, has signed up as a sponsor. And through that group, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing $57,750 that will allow the school to pay an administrator. With the new funds, CERN will add a sister school next month: The East Side Preparatory Academy. CERN will enroll students who drop out of high school. These students are typically age 17 and up who are working toward a GED. East Side Prep will offer students, typically ages 16 and under, a four-year high school curriculum. Each will serve about 25 mostly Hispanic students from Camden.

Program to Deter High School Dropouts by Offering College Courses Is ApprovedNew York Times – October 24, 2007Trying to improve New York’s high school graduation rates, state education officials are proposing to place 12,000 potential dropouts a year in college classes while they are still in high school. The plan, approved yesterday by the state’s Board of Regents, “would provide funding for student to take genuine college courses and receive credit for high school as well as for college,” said the state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills. “Instead of four-plus-four plan – four years of high school and four years of college – students could actually complete high school and a bachelor’s degree in seven years,” the commissioner said. A recent study of dual-enrollment programs in New York and Florida found that students in them were more likely to earn high school diplomas, to enroll in postsecondary education and to stay in college for more than one semester. The study, by researchers at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, also found that low-income students benefited more from such program than other students did.

Dreams put on hold for many illegal immigrant studentsLos Angeles Times – October 26, 2007The defeat of Senate legislation that would offer a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant students set off deep disappointment among many of them Thursday as they scrambled to figure out their futures. The legislation, known as the Dream Act, would have offered a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who had served in the military or completed two years of higher education and who had lived in the United States for at least five years, entered the country before age 16, graduated from high school, compiled no criminal record and demonstrated “good moral character.” The vote on the proposal Wednesday was 52-44, short of the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster and begin debate. Immigrant advocates said Thursday that they would continue to press for passage, though probably as part of a comprehensive measure that would also toughen border and workplace enforcement and increase family and work visas.

High school dropouts’ price is highThe News & Observer – October 25, 2007High school dropouts are costing North Carolina taxpayers millions of dollars each year, according to a new report, but there’s sharp disagreement on what is the best way to solve the problem. The report released Wednesday by the Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation says a single year’s group of dropouts costs the state’s taxpayers $169 million annually in lost sales tax revenue and higher Medicaid and prison costs. The report’s recommended solution of using taxpayer-funded vouchers to help students pay for private schools has drawn a sharp dividing line between supporters and critics of public schools.

Juvenile Justice

Juvenile offenders get the justice low-downHouston Chronicle – October 22, 2007Welcome to the juvenile justice system! Now leave. That, essentially, is the message of Harris County’s new orientation for juvenile delinquents. Akin to high school fish camp or a prospective college tour, the seminar is meant to help kids and their parents navigate the sometimes confusing juvenile courts system, organizers say – but not to invite them back. The orientation, started last month, will soon be a mandatory pit stop for juvenile delinquents sentenced to deferred prosecution, essentially the lightest punishment kids can get. The orientation, organized this fall by members of the Houston Bar Association, features a slate of speakers from each sector of the system: law enforcement, the courts, the defense and juvenile probation. Standing at the front of a courtroom, they explain everything from the arrest process to a judge’s orders, but spend the bulk of their time lecturing youngsters not to come back.

FM Program for juvenile offenders gets boostThe News-Press – October 21, 2007Fort Myers authorities are keeping a close watch on juvenile offenders in the hopes of preventing them from being arrested again. The Fort Myers Police Department is using nearly $249,000 in federal grant money to extend its program for monitoring youth offenders who have been arrested in connection with violent crimes or gun possession charges. The program, now in its third year, relies on a team of four police officers, a gang-prevention officer and a juvenile probation officer to keep tabs on the dozens of juvenile offenders ordered to participate as part of their court sentence.

Foster Care

Foster youths exercise their voices at leadership summitSeattle Post-Intelligencer – October 21, 2007Help us be like normal teenagers. That was the theme of the messages shared by dozens of foster kids who met at this weekend’s second annual Foster Youth and Alumni Leadership Summit, designed to give a voice to current and former foster children. The participants—all between 14 and 24 years old—heard speakers and worked with facilitators to come up with recommendations for legislators and other state policy-makers. They presented those recommendations Sunday to the Washington Supreme Court Commission on Children in Foster Care, which co-sponsored the event with Casey Family Programs.

NJ child welfare reform on track, federal monitor saysNewsday – October 22, 2007Trenton, NJ – The state’s child welfare agency has made significant progress in achieving court-mandated reforms this year, but big challenges remain if the system is to achieve long-term goals for the protection of children. A report released Monday by the Washington-based Center for the Study of Social Policy found that between January and June, New Jersey accomplished everything it said it would to improve child welfare, including lowering caseloads, licensing more foster families and investigating allegations of abuse more quickly. However, the Department of Children and Families has a ways to go if New Jersey’s long-troubled child welfare system is to achieve lasting change, the report says. Despite many accomplishments outlined in the report, “the state’s child welfare system does not consistently function well and the urgency of the reforms remains,” the report concludes.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Making Cash a Prize for High Scores on Advanced Placement TestsNew York Times – October 15, 2007The city is expanding the use of cash rewards for students who take standardized test with a $1 million effort financed by philanthropists who will pay students who do well on Advanced Placement exams. The program, which will be in 25 public schools and six private ones beginning this year, is enthusiastically supported by Schools Chancellor, Joel L. Klein. The A.P. program is intended to increase the number of low-income, black and Latino high school students in New York who take and pass A.P. tests. In city schools, less than I percent of black students pass an Advanced Placement exam, according to city data analyzed by the program.

Ninety-six groups receive U.S. Labor Department’s first YouthBuild awardsEmployment & Training Administration News Release – October 13, 2007Dayton, Ohio – U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced the award of $47 million to 96 groups that will provide education in construction as well as leadership training to at-risk young people across the United States, who will take part in building affordable housing in their own communities. “These $47 million in YouthBuild awards will help at-risk youth get the education, training and opportunity they need to achieve a better life,” said Secretary Chao. YouthBuild will include individuals who have been in juvenile justice system, youth aging out of foster care, high school dropouts and others.

Guard’s academy redirects dropoutsAthens Banner-Herald – October 20, 2007There are 236 cadets enrolled in the Georgia National Guard’s Youth Challenge Academy at Fort Gordon, an Army base near Augusta. The academy uses military discipline to instill pride, confidence and respect for others in high school dropouts and at-risk teens. The cadets – mostly boys, but 20 percent are girls who live in segregated barracks – begin each day with reveille at 5 a.m., followed by physical training, marching in formation from class to class, inspections, homework and lights out at 9 p.m. Officials at Fort Gordon boast that 75 percent of teens in their 5 ½-month program graduate, and of those, 90 percent land full-time jobs, go to college or join the military. Earning a GED is mandatory for graduation and is required by the military. Since the program began in 1993, “6,300 kids – high school dropouts who had nowhere to go except jail – have walked out of here with a diploma, at least a GED,” said Lt. Gen. David Poythress, head of the Georgia National Guard.

Expelled kids face long oddsBoston Herald – October 21, 2007Hundreds of Bay State school children expelled for drug possession, weapons charges and other violations – many unresolved – remain idle and at risk of becoming dropouts because their options for reentering the education system are severely limited. State Department of Education figures show nearly 800 youngsters have been expelled during the past three school years. Cases in which expulsions lead to criminal charges can take months to resolve, leaving the student in learning limbo, especially when families are too poor to find alternatives. “Every student is entitled to a free public education,” said DOE spokeswoman Heidi Guarino. “But when a student has been expelled on a felony charge for drugs, weapons or assault on a school personnel, no other district is obligated to enroll that student. The options that remain for parents are private, parochial or home school.” In Boston, expelled students can qualify for an alternative program to get back to class. The program sets aside 100 slots for high school students and 80 slots for middle school students. It includes counseling and intervention work that preps children to return to school.

Juvenile Justice

Lifers as Teenagers, Now Seeking Second ChanceNew York Times – October 17, 2007In December, the United Nations took up a resolution calling for the abolition of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children and young teenagers. The vote was 185 to 1, with the United States the lone dissenter. Indeed, the United States stands alone in the world in convicting young adolescents as adults and sentencing them to live out their lives in prison. According to a new report, there are 73 Americans serving such sentences for crimes they committed at 13 or 14. The group that plans to release the report on Oct. 17, the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Ala., is one of several human rights organizations that say states should be required to review sentences of juvenile offenders as the decades go by, looking for cases where parole might be warranted.

Foster Care

Grants will help foster kids get first apartmentThe News Tribune – October 20, 2007The state of Washington is about to lay out what might be the smartest $676, 589 it will spend over the next two years. It has approved three grants to help foster kids aging out of the system. The aim is to keep them from becoming homeless. The grants state with the big basic: a home. They follow through with guidance on how to pay for and maintain a place of your own. These, remember, are foster children, whose family homes were a mess. Many have moved around a good deal, and most go out on their own with few resources. They haven’t had the chance to learn by example.

Gov. Culver: Announces All Iowa Opportunity Foster Care Scholarship recipientsIowa Politics – October 18, 2007Governor Chet Culver today announced that 80 Iowa foster care youth will be the first to receive education assistance through the All Iowa Opportunity Foster Care Grant. The program, which was signed into law by Governor Culver on May 29, 2007, will provide educational assistance to Iowa youth who were in foster care, or who were adopted from foster care after their 16th birthdays. “I ran for Governor to expand access to high education,” said Governor Culver. “Today, Iowa ranks near the bottom in needs-based access to higher education. Iowa can do better. The All Iowa Opportunity Scholarship will give young people, including Iowa’s foster care youth, who have historically left behind the chance to go to college. This is good for them, and good for our state. We must continue to train, improve and expand our workforce to be able to meet potential workforce challenges in the coming years.”

Broward’s ChildNet subcontracts to place gay foster kidsMiami Herald – October 18, 2007Recognizing the gap in service, Broward’s foster care agency, ChildNet, has contracted with the National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP) to recruit and train foster parents to take in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender foster children. “A lot of kids go through an awful lot because of gender identity questions and issues and their needs don’t get met in the absence of people who have had an experience with those issues,” said Larry Rein, interim president of ChildNet, which serves about 2,500 children, including about 600 in foster homes.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Bush Prodding Congress to Reauthorize His Education LawThe New York Times – October 9, 2007With his domestic agenda in tatters, President Bush tried Tuesday to prod Congress into reauthorizing his biggest domestic achievement, the 2001 No Child Left Behind education law. But lawmakers have yet to come to terms on the legislation, and prospects for a deal this year appear dim. The bill would remain in effect even if it is not renewed, but the administration is seeking changes to it, and some opponents would like to see it thoroughly revamped.

Poor Students Perform Same at Public, Private SchoolsHouston Chronicle – October 10, 2007Low-income students who attend urban public high schools generally do just as well as private-school students with similar backgrounds, according to a study being released today. Students at independent private schools and most parochial schools scored the same on 12th-grade achievement tests in core academic subjects as those in traditional public high schools when income and other family characteristics were taken into account, according to the study by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy. While the finding is in line with a handful of recent studies, it’s at odds with a larger body of research that has found private-school students outperform those in public schools. However, the new study not only compared students by income levels but also looked at a range of other family characteristics.

High schools use after-school tutoringTuscaloosa News – October 9, 2007Tuscaloosa – There are about 2,000 high schools nationally that have a graduation rate of 60 percent or less. And one of them is in Tuscaloosa. Central High had a graduation rate of 46 percent last year. But Alabama as a whole is lagging behind most of the country when it comes to graduation rates, ranking 44th nationally. According to the Washington, D.C. – based Alliance for Education, only 60.7 percent of Alabama ninth-graders in 2002-2003 made it to graduation. According to the alliance, if those dropouts in Alabama had graduated, it would have meant an additional $3.1 billion in income over their lifetimes. But that’s money that most of them will never see. And it’s a problem that is affecting communities across the county, affecting crime rates and social welfare costs and dragging down local economies, the alliance says. The problem arises from a combination of academic and social factors. Alabama has established the High Hopes program which is an after school tutoring program which is targets toward at-risk students to improve scores on the Alabama High School Graduation exam.

Juvenile Justice

GAO Study Reveals Boot Camp NightmareUSA Today – October 10, 2007The first federal inquiry into the boot camps and wilderness programs for troubled teens cataloged 1,619 incidents of abuse in 33 states in 2005, a congressional investigation out today reveals. The study, by the Government Accountability Office, also looked at a sample of 10 deaths since 1990 and found untrained staff, inadequate food or reckless operations were factors. There are no federal rules governing residential facilities for children, and some state do not license such programs. The findings are scheduled to be presented at a hearing of the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Foster Care

Experts plumb rate of black children in systemThe Courier-Journal – October 10, 2007Yesterday’s conference was part of an effort by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to try to reduce the disproportionate number of African-American children in state care. The conference, which drew child welfare workers from around the country, was meant to prompt states to examine their policies and work to reduce the number of minority children in foster care. Although national studies have shown African-American parents are no more likely to abuse or neglect children than white parents, about 33 percent of children in foster care are black although they represent only about 15 percent of the child population nationwide, according to date provided at the conference.

No home, no health care may await ex-foster kidsReuters - October 9, 2007New York – After leaving foster care, many children end up homeless, without adequate access to health care, warn researchers in a report published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Kushel’s team found that more than half of emancipated foster youth were uninsured. The rates ranged from about 46 percent of the stably housed ex-foster care youth to 77 percent of those who experienced homelessness. By comparison, roughly 30 percent of young adults in the general population report an episode of being uninsured. Kushel and colleagues conclude that “strategies to improve health outcomes among emancipated youth should address both their lack of health insurance and their risk of housing instability and homelessness.”

Sunday, October 07, 2007

U.S. Department of Labor youth-related grants advance education and employment connections for troubled youthEmployment and Training Administration News Release - October 6, 2007The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is providing $2,950,000 in funding to six cities to ”blueprint” and implement a system that can reconnect youth that have dropped out of high school to a variety of high quality, innovative multiple education pathways. These pathways will offer alternative learning environments that engage these youth in rigorous and relevant academic studies and workforce preparation, while preparing and connecting them to post-secondary education opportunities. Former dropout youth will then be better prepared to enter the labor market and career pathways in high growth, high demand industries.

Study: School tests aim too lowThe Enquirer – October 3, 2007Ohio and other states are aiming too low on some state school tests, painting an unreliable picture of academic achievement and setting up elementary students to fail, a new study by the Fordham Institute says. The study, called “The Proficiency Illusion,” was released this morning. It says that No Child Left Behind’s mandated tests on math and reading create a false impression of success, especially in reading and especially in the early grades, in the 26 states studied in the report. Fordham’s study says states, including Ohio, are setting the cut scores too low and too inconsistently to accurately gauge how students are progressing.

Former dropout unveils program to get today’s dropouts back in schoolSt. Louis Post-Dispatch – October 2, 2007Now, through an ambitious program that will seek out dropouts in their homes, the alarm is about to sound for 2,000 St. Louis young people when they should be in school. Members of the “In It 2 Win Coalition” have vowed to do everything in their vowed to do everything in their power to persuade dropouts to return to school. The program was announced Monday. “If they have a phone, we’re going to keep calling and calling,” promised Jamilah Nasheed, a dropout who earned her high school equivalency certificate and now serves St. Louis’ 60th legislative district in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Juvenile Justice

4-H Principles Underpin Program Helping Juvenile OffendersAgNews – October 4, 2007Kerrville – A new program based on 4-H principles is helping juvenile offenders develop character and life skills while giving them a chance at a better life, said program coordinators. The LIFE Skills program, which began in June, is a combined effort of the Kerr County Juvenile Board, the county’s juvenile probation department and the local Texas Cooperative Extension office. Juvenile offenders are ordered by the court to attend a series of two-hour LIFE Skills sessions as a condition of their probation. The length of time they must remain in the program is the same as their length of probation.Releasing the namesJersey City Reporter – September 28, 2007Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy wants the public to know which violent juvenile offenders live in their neighborhoods. At a recent press conference in City Hall, Healy announced that he plans to push legislation on a state level that would allow the release of the names of violent juvenile offenders under the age of 18. Those against the legislation say that there is a reason for concealing of the identity of most juveniles and that the point of juvenile justice is the juvenile can be rehabilitated.

Foster Care

Crucial health care eludes foster kidsThe Star-Ledger – October 4, 2007Only 30 percent of foster children last year received a required evaluation of their medical and mental health needs, according to a report released by the Office of the Child Advocate yesterday. Based on a file review of 80 foster children, just under 30 percent were given the exams – waiting about four months for their turn, according to the report. Caseworkers from the Division of Youth and Family Services are responsible for seeing the exams occur, but the study said they missed 460 appointments, for a 19 percent “no-show” last year. Following the exams, only 11 percent of the foster children got all follow-up care they needed to address the medical, dental or psychological problems the exams revealed. More than three-quarters of the children had at least one chronic or acute medical condition an one-third had a behavioral or mental issue.

Foster care funds don’t cover parents’ bills, report saysUSA Today – October 3, 2007Most states pay foster parents far less than what middle-income families spend to raise their children, says a report out today by University of Maryland researchers. “Foster parents should receive the funds they need,” says co-author Julie Farber, director of policy at Children’s Rights, a New York-based advocacy group. Too often, she says, they either stop taking in foster kids or dig into their own pockets to pay for prom dresses and Boy Scouts uniforms. The report comes as more states report a shortage of families to care for the 500,000 children nationwide in foster care.

Benefit fashion services CSUS Guardian Scholars ProgramThe State Hornet – October 4, 2007Most college students can’t image a childhood spent in foster care, but for a select few Sacramento State students, it’s a reality. In order to raise more awareness and funds for the program, the sixth annual Foster Youth Education Fund hosted, “Dancin’ in the Streets” Fashion Show and Tea Sept. 30 in the University Union Grand Ballroom. Sac State’s Guardian Scholars program, which celebrated its first year on campus in June, currently provides academic support services to 19 emancipated foster youth this semester as they transition out of the foster care system and into a university.